Trust is a Free Action
by Dr. Breifs Cat
Summary: They say trust needs to be earned, but sometimes, it's a given. (Or, Cat Noir makes a choice.)


**Trust is a Free Action**

In the end, it happened because…

Well, it happened because he wanted it to happen, but the _pretense_ for it happening on that particular day had been that there was simply nowhere to go.

The akuma had taken over a landlord, proprietor of one of those large, old apartment buildings. The place was forty years old, easily, and its facilities had been modernized probably never. The landlord's frustration at his worn building that never generated enough income to make remodeling feasible thus ensuring it never _would_ had, for whatever reason, become strong enough for Hawk Moth to prey upon on that precise day. It was an unusual rampage, contained by never ending hallways and locked doors conjured by the akuma. Tight spaces and nowhere to hide. The fight had been challenging. Cat Noir had torn through the very building with his Cataclysm, shattering story after story just to give Ladybug some vantage point from which she could plan.

When the Miraculous Ladybugs restored everything, the floors of the old building were back, worn, faded carpet and all. The landlord was nowhere in sight, presumably on a lower level than they.

Cat was down to his last paw pad. At Ladybug's urging, he ran for the nearest stairwell. He pressed the bar. Shook the bar. "Door's jammed."

Ladybug gaped. "It can't be jammed! People live here! They must use those stairs everyday!"

He pressed it again. "You're welcome to try your luck, m'lady, but I don't think I'll get it open without breaking it, and you've already restored the building."

She didn't like the idea of civilians being forced to deal with the damages caused by superheroes any better. It was an old building. The landlord had been so frustrated that he'd been Akumatized. A door prone to jamming—it wasn't out of the question, was it?

"Try the other one!"

There was another stairwell at the opposite end of the long hallway. Someone without enhanced abilities could never clear the distance in the time Cat had left, but he could, easily.

He didn't move.

"I don't mind if you know who I am."

Ladybug peered down the empty hall. Maybe she ought to be the one to run down to the other stairwell. She didn't have a lot of time remaining herself. "Let's have this argument another time, when it's a _little_ less urgent!"

Too late. He'd already begun to glow.

She screwed her eyes shut. "I'm not looking! Just go down the other way!"

What she wanted to hear were the footsteps of a mysterious and unknowable boy running down the hallway.

What she heard was nothing.

"You don't want me to know who you are," Cat said. His words came slower than usual, his tone lower, the overall tenor subdued. "I respect that. Why can't you respect that I would rather you know?"

"Because" (and a beep in her ear made her heart rate spike) "we're superheroes! You know we can't trust anyone with our secret!"

"I don't want to trust just anyone, but it makes no sense that we can't trust each other. There's no one in the world I trust more than you."

Ladybug wanted to argue, she really did. But his transformation had already occurred and no one else was there to see it. He wasn't risking some stranger might accidentally see when he showed her. It was only her. And Ladybug was obviously trustworthy! What could she possibly say to convince him that the owner of the Ladybug Miraculous was not to be trusted with his secret? She was trusted with the earrings. She was trusted with his very life as his combat partner. She was trusted with the knowledge from the book, with the box hidden inside a phonogram. How could she possibly convince him that there was one name she must never learn? She was allowed to select allies that were not allowed to keep their Miraculouses, but the only other person who was permitted to keep his she could know nothing about?

Cat accepted a simple _trust me on this_ in the heat of battle. She didn't even have to say that much anymore. It was a given. But he was at liberty to think on the identity issue so much more than any of the split second decisions they had to make during a fight. _I know it doesn't make much sense, but it's the right thing to do, so trust me_ didn't hold up so well when all he wanted was to trust her.

"I'm going to change back soon. Your eyes better be closed."

_Now_ she heard his footsteps.

Bare hands—no gloves, no claws, just soft skin and fingernails trimmed so short she couldn't feel them—gently took her by the wrists and put her hands

on his face?

On his eyes.

Of course.

"See? I can't."

"Well, Kitty, that's a lovely gesture and all, but I can't keep my hands over your eyes while I walk away from you."

"Oh. Oh right."

In what was probably the most unnecessary no-personal-space development in a partnership already rife with them (he should have just left like she asked!) Ladybug pawed his face to get a good sense of his position and, without removing her hands from his eyes, shuffled around him so that she was directly behind him with a hopefully functional stairwell door directly behind _her._ As long as he did not turn around, she would be fine.

Eyes closed.

Straight line.

Walk away.

"Is this the part where you shout 'Surprise?'"

"No, this is the part where I bug out."

"I don't mind if you look."

She was not even a _little_ tempted, thank you.

"You aren't going to know me just from the back of my head."

Ladybug sighed. "Kitty, I know it's hard, but this is just the way it has to be."

And that's when he said it anyway.

"My name is Adrien."

She opened her eyes.

And yes, she'd know the back of that head anywhere.

He laughed, half strangled, half relieved. "You don't know how long I've wanted to say that." It was all just painfully wistful. _"My name is Adrien Agreste."_

Ladybug trembled and magic engulfed her and suddenly she was just Marinette Dupain-Cheng standing behind Adrien Agreste with her hands over his eyes and a plan to turn around and bolt the other way in a perfectly straight line as if she were ever going to be capable of _two steps_ after knowing she had once _clamped her hands on Adrien Agreste's face._

"I guess it's probably too much to hope that you only know me as some kid you've rescued a few times and there won't be any baggage."

Marinette screwed her eyes shut again. "I...I may have seen...an ad or two…"

She had kissed Adrien Agreste. Three times! And _wow,_ kissing him to free him from Dark Cupid's influence and a mysterious Oblivio kiss that she didn't remember were _both_ not as weird as kissing him because she thought he was a statue!

"I usually don't leap through random feathers."

She knew she should say something clever, but she liked that ad campaign _a lot_ and also Adrien Agreste was constitutionally incapable of walking past a flower without trying to give it to her. Sometimes on his knees.

"How old are you?" he asked, perfectly conversational. "Or is that too personal? I'm fourteen."

"I'm two. I mean, I'm fourteen, too, as in _also._ Not two _and_ fourteen because that would be sixteen. Just fourteen. Like you."

Marinette winced.

One time,_ Adrien Agreste_ came to her house extremely dejected because she had stood him up for a candlelit rooftop dinner.

"I'm glad."

_He. Was. Glad._

The fight had been over long enough that the residents were likely to start returning to their homes soon. She didn't want to be Marinette Dupain-Cheng standing behind Adrien Agreste with her hands covering his eyes in the hallway of a forty year old apartment building when that happened.

It would be very hard to explain.

Even harder if he kept his eyes closed the entire time because that would just add another layer of weird to an already very elaborate Tiered Wedding Cake of Weird.

His eyes were closed and even if they weren't, she was standing behind him. Marinette dropped her hands to his shoulders, pushed herself onto her tiptoes, leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He gasped, and she knew the expression he wore as Cat Noir when Ladybug bestowed unexpected affection on him.

She wondered what it looked like when _Adrien_ did it.

Think _Cat_.

Marinette screwed her eyes shut, pictured Cat Noir with a mask and a cocky expression as he delivered some horrible pick-up line as best she could.

Okay.

"Thanks for telling me, Cat Noir. It really means a lot that you trust me so much."

"Of course I trust you."

She thought she could hear _even if you don't trust me_ in there somewhere and decided to leave that for later. Some mysterious time in the future when she did not have her arms around Adrien Agreste, had not just kissed Adrien Agreste, had not had the realization that as long as she did it while wearing a domino mask, she could kiss Adrien Agreste as much as she wanted to.

(Which was... _just a whole bunch._)

Marinette let go.

Took one, then two steps back.

Shouted, "Don't you peek!" turned and ran down the hallway.

(She encountered some strangers on the stairs who confirmed it—yeah, that door was always stuck. When was the landlord going to do anything about that, anyway?)

* * *

In the end, it happened because she was suddenly struck with the needless cruelty of searching for two different remote places to hide.

They both must transform in a place where they would not be seen. Naturally. She was in no way going to dispute that. But how much time had they wasted looking for _multiple_ empty, sheltered places? How much time had they wasted treating each other's absurd excuses to run off alone as legitimate problems? Or tried to force each other to stay with the group where there was safety in numbers when really everyone's safety had depended on them getting away?

The akuma attacked during school (because of course it did) and the class swarmed out of the classroom, headed left down the hallway so Marinette was about to slink to the right and

No.

Adrien was just going to have to separate himself from everyone somehow, _then_ find a place to hide and _then_ transform and _then_ go after the akuma and

No.

Things were just a _little_ bit more urgent than that. Marinette reached out, grabbed his wrist. "Adrien! This way!" and pulled him right.

"Marinette!" He was surprised, of course. Kept glancing back over his shoulder. "We have to go back for the others!"

"They'll be fine! This way is better!"

He was puzzled. "If this way is better, shouldn't we get everyone?"

Well, _no._ Because the only thing that makes this way better is that they aren't here and we can transform sooner and that is what will result in their future fine-ness.

But she didn't say that, because talking was not a free action until after the transformation, so she just kept her grip tight and ran.

"I...I forgot my bag! I need to go back for it!"

Now if _that_ wasn't the exact sort of stupid excuse she liked to make when trying to get away from someone so that she can transform! "No time! You'll have to get it later!"

They dove behind a bench. Marinette looked at Adrien. Adrien who will absolutely not be disappointed that clumsy old Marinette is his Lady because Adrien is unfailingly generous and kind, could not be disappointed with his friends if he tried. She missed that, somehow, for all she adored him. She had known he was gentle. That he was sweet and sensitive and wonderful, but she had not understood that he was good . That he had the precise sort of selfless, relentlessly helpful goodness that Master Fu and Tikki always told her she had. He must, otherwise he would not be allowed the privilege of his ring and Plagg all the time. The trust Master Fu had for him proved that Adrien's goodness was special, an out-of-the-ordinary kind of goodness. A miraculous goodness that would not be disappointed or deflated to know it was her, but only delighted by her trust.

She cried, "Tikki, Spots on!" and when the light faded, she realized how massively she had underestimated his delight.

But there wasn't time for that.

Yet.

What they had time for was a quick chin scritch and the words "I need my kitty."

Adrien took his claws out, and they leapt over the bench and into the fray together.


End file.
